Tuesday, November 10, 2009

ICMJE proposes new disclosure policy for authors

From the American Medical News article:

An influential group of medical journal editors in October announced a new, more probing conflict-of-interest disclosure form that it hopes will become the industry standard. The effort comes in response to criticism that medical journals have failed to properly inform their readers about authors' financial relationships with industry.

The uniform disclosure form, adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, asks authors submitting for publication to disclose any payment for the research that generated the article as well as other kinds of industry relationships such as consultancies, honoraria or stock options from the last three years.

The form also asks authors to disclose whether spouses or children have financial relationships with "entities that have an interest in the content of the submitted work." Writers also should provide "any relevant nonfinancial associations or interests" of a personal, political or religious nature "that a reasonable reader would want to know about."